Planning, Preparedness, & Disaster Recovery

The Planning, Preparedness, and Disaster Recovery Section supports Alaska communities across the full resilience continuum, from risk assessment and hazard identification to preparedness, resilience planning, disaster recovery, and long-term community sustainability. Through floodplain management, natural hazard mapping, resilience planning, and disaster recovery and mitigation funding programs, we help communities identify risks, leverage resources, reduce vulnerability, and build safer, more resilient futures. We provide services to Alaska communities through the following programs:

Community Resilience Planning Partnership

DCRA staff serve as Risk Assessment Planners to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Community Risk Assessment Program, helping communities build resilience by improving local understanding of natural hazard risks, supporting decisions on risk reduction, and assisting with the development of Infrastructure Protection Plans that guide long-term protection efforts.

Disaster Recovery and Mitigation Grant Programs

DCRA staff administer the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funding to support community recovery, resiliency, and long-term development across Alaska. CDBG-DR helps communities recover from presidentially declared disasters through investments in housing, public infrastructure, and economic revitalization, with a focus on benefiting low- and moderate-income residents. CDBG-MIT supports strategic projects that reduce future disaster risks, strengthen community resiliency, and protect critical infrastructure from current and emerging hazards.

Floodplain Management/National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)

DCRA staff serves as the State of Alaska NFIP Coordinator, overseeing the state’s participation in the NFIP by providing training, technical assistance, and outreach to Alaska’s NFIP-participating communities in managing their local floodplain management programs.

Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP)

DCRA staff serves as the State of Alaska Risk MAP Coordinator, providing training, technical assistance, and outreach that builds local understanding of risk, guides decision-making, and supports actions to reduce risk. Key deliverables of FEMA’s Risk MAP Program are the Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Maps.

Program Resources

• Alaska Communities Most Vulnerable to Natural Hazards

  This webpage provides an overview of the communities designated as being at the highest risk for infrastructure damage from erosion, flooding, and permafrost degradation, based on a 2019 Statewide Threat Assessment, as well as the communities that experienced the most significant impact from Typhoon Merbok. It features an interactive map and community profiles detailing critical infrastructure, hazard threat summaries, and current or proposed mitigation efforts.

• Community Plans Library

  The Community Plans Library is a repository of community plans from across the state, including comprehensive plans, strategic plans, land use plans, hazard mitigation plans, transportation plans, and other planning documents.

• Community Profile Maps

  This interactive map shows where community profile maps have been created around the state. By clicking on the green points, you will be able to view the profile maps that have been completed for that community.

• Community Resilience Resources

  This webpage hosts a number of resources addressing community resilience, with guidance for community-based methods for monitoring erosion, flooding, and permafrost thaw; resilience planning, and incremental, community-driven relocation.

• Floodplain Manager Resources

  This webpage hosts a repository of manuals, websites, and forms of relevance to local floodplain administrators.

• Resilience, Planning, & Land Management Publications

  Our current publications in pdf format.

• Who's Planning Alaska

  Due to the various owners and managers of Alaska’s land and coastline, this website's intent is to help users figure out who's planning Alaska.

Legacy Resilience Programs

These legacy programs are no longer funded and are provided online for reference purposes only.

• Alaska Climate Change Impact Mitigation Program - Hazard Impact Assessments and Community Planning Grants to mitigate climate change impacts.
• Alaska Community Coastal Protection Project - A project that focuses on increasing natural hazard resilience in Kivalina, Shaktoolok and Shishmaref.
• Community Coastal Impact Assistance Program - CIAP awards to named municipalities and for projects selected under a public solicitation.

For more information about DCRA's Resilience, Planning, and Land Management Section contact:

Sally Russell Cox

Local Government Specialist 5 / Planning, Preparedness, & Disaster Recovery Section Manager
Division of Community and Regional Affairs
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1640
Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: (907) 269-4588
Fax: (907) 269-4539